Fountain pen desk set



July 24, 195] 5 HARMON 2,561,923

FOUNTAIN PEN DESK SET Filed Nov. 5, 1945 BY WM ATTORNEYS Patented July 24, 1951 UNITED STATES FOUNTAIN PEN DESK SET EdwardxB. Harmom-Janesville, Wis.L assignor to The Parker Pen Company, Janesville; Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Application'November 5, 1945, Serial No. 626,644 2 Claims. ((31.120-408) ally mounted on a; base through the medium. of

a ball-and-socket joint which enables the. receptacleto be' adjusted angularly to any desired position with. respect to the base.

:I-Ierctofore, the ball-and-socket joints. employed for the above purpose have comprised, in one form or another, spring-actuated braking means which were either quite complicated, and therefore somewhat costly to manufacture, or, alternatively, were incapable of. continuing to function properly after some wear of the inter-engag.- ing ball-and-socket surfaces had taken place.

My principal-object is to provide for use in desk sets a ball-and-socket'joint which is Wholly adequate for that purpose and yet is devoid of spring-actuated braking means.

Another object is to provide for use in desk sets a dependable and durable ball-and-socket joint which can be manufactured economically and at the same time is well adapted tothe accomplishment of artistic desk set designs.

A further object is to provide a desk set of the ball-and-socket type wherein" the pen receptacle and ballcan easily be detached from the base.

I My invention is characterized in thatthe ball or other's-wivel-like member which serves as a pivot for the pen receptacle and is integral with or fixedly attached to the pen receptacle is held seated in a socket-like cavity in the base by magnetic attraction induced by a permanent magnet-which magnetic attraction produces enough braking pressure between the ball and its seat to counteract the leverage of the pen and pen receptacle, thereby preventing rotation of the ball, except when it is intentionally rotated as a result of manually shifting the position of the pen receptacle. This makes it unnecessary for the socket to extend beyond the equator of the ball and renders it possible easily to detach the pen receptacle and ball from the base.

An additional feature of my invention is, that by making the ball fairly large and the socket relatively shallow and of considerably less diameter than the ball, it is possible to create the illusion that the ball is standing on a flat surface-which effect contributes materially to the unique appearance of the set.

It is within the purview of my invention to provide inter-engaging ball-and-socket surfaces which are smooth, but usually I find it preferable to roughen said surfaces whereby to increase the coefficient of friction. This can be done by etching or knurling or by applying a suitable crystal- 2 line substance: or the ball-and socket surfaces may be faceted as hereinafter described. Whether or not the surfaces need be roughened depends in part uponthe weight and length of the pen; in part upon: the size of" the ball-and-socket, and in. part upon the magnetic force. available to oppose rotation of the ball.

In the drawing-which accompanies this. specification.

Fig. I is. a perspective view of adesklsetaccord ing to one of the. preferred embodiments ofthe invention;

Fig; 2: is an enlarged. sectional view. showing details of the magnetic socket construction;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view illustrating a" modified form. of .the'invention; and

- Fig; 4 is-a fragmentaryviewtaken along. line 4--4 of Fig. 3;. with the" pen-receiving receptacle removed.

The assembly of Eig'. .1 comprises a rectangular base-1' of any suitable material such, for exams role, as onyx,. marble. orone of the solid plastics, and" ontwhich' is detachably mounted a pen. recep tacl'e 2 designed to receivesa pen 3. Fixe'dly attached: to. the: lower end of receptacle; 2v is 'aball; like member 4 cf para-magnetic materialsuchi as iron ;stee'lor'nickel. i

Asdep'icte'd in Fig. 2, ball. '4 is seated in a spherical recess or socket: formed: in. theupper end of a bar magnet 5 which is permanently magnetized so that its upper and lower ends constitute opposite magnetic poles. Magnet 5 is preferably made of an alloy such as Alnico having high magnetic retentivity, but it can, if desired, be made of any permanently magnetizable steel.

If the leverage exerted by the pen and pen receptacle and tending to rotate ball 4 is not too great, or if the ball and magnet are made large enough, it may be practicable to employ a ball having a smooth surface; and likewise the ball contacting surface of the magnet may be smooth. By increasing the diameter of magnet 5 and thus increasing the area of contact between the magnet and the ball, it may still be feasible to employ smooth surfaces even though the pen is heavy enough otherwise to overcome the anti-rotational friction induced by the magnetic pull. But I have found that in many instances it is preferable to roughen the surface of the ball and the contacting socket surface either by etching, knurling or applying thereto some suitable coating as, for example, a thin layer of fine silicon carbide or other abrasive powder.

In Figs. 3 and 4 there is depicted a preferred construction wherein the surface of ball 6 is faceted in the manner of a cut jewel while the complementary surface of the socket is similarly faceted. Instead of being a true sphere, ball 6 is what may be termed a spheroidal polyhedron. The magnet I may be a straight bar magnet, as in Fig. 2, but I prefer to make it of horseshoe form, as shown, the two tips 1a and lb constituting north and south poles, respectively. By so doing, the magnetic circuit is completed by ball 6, and said path includes no air gap. Thus the full available force of the magnet is brought to bear on the ball and there is no stray flux which might otherwise adversely affect adjacent objects.

A characteristic of the faceted ball-and-socket embodiment of Fig. 3 is that the pen receptacle may be moved into and tends to remain in any selected one of a number of definite predetermined angular positions due to the proclivity of the ball to come to rest in the socket in such manner that the ball-and-socket facets are in fully nested engagement.

In either example, if the socket is made of small enough diameter relatively to that of the ball, the latter will appear, upon casual observation, to be standing on the flat top surface of the base-the effect being artistically unique and agreeable.

Since the pen receptacle and ball are held to the socket only by magnetic attraction, they can quite easil be detached from the socket. This is an advantage where one may wish to put the pen away without leaving the pen nib exposed, and especially where the base is too cumbersome for convenient removal.

I claim:

1. A mounting for a pen desk set of the type wherein a pen-receiving receptacle formed with an elongated socket open at one end and closed at the other end for receiving and enclosing the writing end of a pen is magnetically supported on a base, which mounting comprises a ball-like element of paramagnetic material rigidly secured to the closed end of the receptacle and having a faceted exposed surface and a permanent magnet secured in said base and having an exposed pole face in the form of a single socket-like element shaped and faceted complementally to the shape or said ball-likeelement for face-toface contact and minimum magnetic flux path between facets of said ball-like element and the facets of said pole face when said ball is seated on said pole face, whereby said ball-like element and the receptacle supported thereby are magnetically held in any one of a number of angular positions to which adjusted on the base.

2. A mounting for a pen desk set of the type wherein a pen-receiving receptacle formed with an elongated socket open at one end and closed at the other end for receiving and enclosing the writing end of a pen is magnetically supported on a base, which mounting comprises a ball-like element of paramagnetic material rigidlysecured to the closed end of the receptacle and having a faceted exposed surface and a permanent magnet structure secured in the base and including a pair of spaced pole elements of opposite polarity and having exposed end faces together forming a single socket-like element shaped and faceted complementally to the shape of said ball-like element for face-to-face contact and minimum magnetic flux path between facets of said ball-like element and the facets of said pole faces when said ball is seated on said pole faces, whereby said ball-like element and the receptacle supported thereby are magnetically held in any one of a number of angular positions to which adjusted on the base.

EDWARD B. HARMON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in th file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 892,105 White June 30, 1908 1,561,554 Little Nov. 17, 1925 1,778,481 Boucher Oct. 14, 1930 1,854,625 Reix Apr. 19, 1932 1,861,171 Zimmermann May 31, 1932 1,916,808 Parker July 4, 1933 2,121,317 Cohen June 21, 1938 2,297,806 Smith Oct. 6, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date I 126,414 Switzerland ..1 June 16, 1928 380,267 Great Britain Sept. 15, 1932 

